


World Set Right

by GunBunnyCentral



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Episode Tag, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-23
Updated: 2012-08-23
Packaged: 2017-11-12 16:59:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/493597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GunBunnyCentral/pseuds/GunBunnyCentral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Myka and Pete discuss the events of "No Pain, No Gain."</p>
            </blockquote>





	World Set Right

**Author's Note:**

> This is my attempt to tidy up Pete and Myka's storyline during 4x05 "No Pain, No Gain", and to address a few concerns that I've seen brought up about it. Obviously, there will be spoilers. :)

Pete was waiting for Myka when she got home. She hadn't intended for him to know where she'd been just yet, but the rare moment alone was probably as good a time as any for the conversation he seemed intent on starting.

His eyes followed her anxiously around the room as she heated up the food Leena had left her and took a seat across from him at the kitchen table. Once she was settled and had taken her first bite, she nodded for him to go ahead.

"So," Pete said finally, "Claude may or may not have accidentally let slip that you had a doctor's appointment today."

Myka nodded, chewing her food slowly to give herself time to collect her thoughts. She knew exactly where the conversation would go - they'd both been more or less avoiding it over the last few days, and she hoped that Pete was finding that as tiresome as she was.

She delayed just a moment longer by taking a sip of her drink, then finally spoke. "I had an appointment with my gynecologist. It seemed like a good idea after... everything."

For once, Pete's inner twelve-year-old remained firmly buried, and his eyes reflected only a very adult mix of worry and guilt. "Nothing's wrong, right? I mean - you're okay?"

Then his eyes got very, very wide with something approaching panic. "Oh, god - you're not still...?"

Myka smiled slightly as she shook her head, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. The explanation she was about to give Pete would alleviate some of his guilt, but she knew it would also make him strangely sad.

"I was never really pregnant, Pete," she said gently, reaching out to cover one of his hands with her own. "Do you know what the word _pseudocyesis_ means?"

Pete just shook his head without making any further comment, so Myka continued her explanation. "It's the scientific term for a false pregnancy - all the symptoms are there, but there isn't actually a baby. It can be caused by things like hormonal imbalances, psychological issues -"

"Or wishing artifacts," Pete finished, looking both guilty and a little glum as he stared at the table in front of him. "I guess that makes sense."

He looked up at her again. "You're sure? I didn't even think about any of it until after we'd already neutralized the dog tags. What if -?"

Myka shook her head in answer to Pete's final question - the same one that had also haunted her at first. "There was no movement, no quickening, and there should have been plenty of it that late into a pregnancy. If I'd felt anything even remotely like that, I'd have insisted on going to the hospital to get checked out before we did anything to the artifact."

She watched Pete mull over her answer before finally accepting it. It didn't make him any less sad, but the guilt seemed to ease a little.

"I'm sorry," Myka told him, not quite sure why she felt the need to apologize. "It really was a sweet wish."

Pete stared at her as if she'd suddenly gone crazy. "How can you not be totally pissed at me? What if the wish had actually worked?"

Myka, having thought about that possibility several times over the last few days, just shrugged. "We'll never know, because it *didn't* work. I'd like to think we'd have done what we always do - make the best of it and hope the poor baby wasn't spoiled rotten before it could even walk."

She dared a tentative smile at Pete - the first real one of the whole conversation - and he smiled back a little even as he searched her face for anger or condemnation.

There wasn't any to find, though - for all the ugly undercurrents implicit in its fulfillment (or near-fulfillment) absent Myka's consent, Pete's wish had been completely innocent, with no actual intent to realize any of it. Even if the dog tags had been successful in manifesting it all - leaving Myka with a child she'd never agreed to have, much less planned for - she wouldn't have been able to blame Pete.

Especially because she knew Pete would have been there with her every step of the way, without a moment's hesitation.

Ignoring that her smile had to have turned a little sappy at that thought, Myka stood up and motioned for Pete to come give her a hug. As they held each other for a moment, Myka spoke quietly into his ear. "It wouldn't have been such a bad thing..."

The words had their intended effect as Myka felt Pete's tension drain away. They even shared a grin as they pulled apart, both likely trying to imagine raising a child together and seeing the humor inherent in it.

This was the essential truth of their relationship: they simply loved each other, without really knowing or caring whether they were *in love* with each other. 

Pete's vision of them raising a family wasn't at all surprising, or even terribly unrealistic - it was almost a given that they'd both looked at each other and weighed the possibilities at some point. Their bond wasn't necessarily romantic right now, but there was no telling what it could turn into as the years passed.

Myka would be lying if she said she'd never considered what a future with Pete would be like - he was a good man who would do his damnedest to make her happy, and probably succeed. It would be sweet, and safe, with just enough passion to make things work.

Then Helena had stormed into her life - turning it upside down and inside out in the process - and made her see what trading passion for safety would cost.

Myka wanted it all - love, romance, passion so strong it overwhelmed common sense - but would accept the consequences if she made an informed decision to choose security instead. That was her right.

What she wouldn't accept - hypocritical as it sounded - was the risk of Pete making the same choice and later regretting it when true love came calling for him. She understood him well enough to know that, once they were together, he wouldn't walk away even for the sake of his own happiness.

If only things could be so certain and clear-cut between herself and Helena... Sighing inwardly, Myka sat back down and returned to her meal.

Pete went to get a soda from the fridge before sitting back down beside Myka. "So, my mom called today while you were gone - she wanted me to tell you that HG is doing great. They've even given her a bit of supervised field work."

He tried for nonchalant and failed, but that was fine - Myka knew he was just trying to find some way to talk to her about her fit of temporary insanity with Mike Madden, and whether it had any effect on things with Helena.

Myka couldn't help flinching at the memory, though that wasn't Mike's fault in any way. Kissing someone she barely knew in the middle of a crowded hockey arena was not really like her at all, and the unsettled state of her relationship with Helena left her struggling with a lingering sense of guilt she could neither embrace nor completely dismiss.

"I just needed to feel wanted again," she murmured, voicing her thoughts aloud without intending to.

Pete smirked a little at his success in steering the conversation, then shrugged as he tried a bit more successfully to be nonchalant. "What, you sucking face with that hockey player? No big, just a moment of craziness - it's not like you would have taken it any further."

It was true. Myka had enjoyed Madden's company - and even his kiss - but it had recently been made crystal clear to her that there was only one person she wanted in her life and in her bed.

The pain of Helena's continued absence cut through Myka like a knife - again - and she felt tears start to sting her eyes. "I miss her so much, Pete. I never even got the chance to finally tell her I love her before they took her away again."

Pete - because he was Pete and that was what he did - was at her side holding her before she even realized he'd left his seat. "Hey, now. She's coming back home, Mykes - the Regents are just being extra careful so we can make sure she gets the help she needs this time, and I'm pretty sure she knows how you feel about her by now."

That was the hope Myka had been clinging to - Helena, home for good and finally hers - but it was getting harder and harder to maintain as the days rolled by without so much as a phone call or an email to tell her what was happening.

Pete - because he was still Pete and it was also what he did - got that look that meant Myka was probably going to have to punch him in the arm. "Hey, I know! You two are all crazy about words and things - start writing down those dirty HG dreams you're always having so you can send them to her!"

And just like that, Myka's world was right again, set back in order by the universal constant of Pete's teasing.

She flushed beet red as she tried to stammer out some kind of denial about the dreams, but Pete just shook his head. "Don't even bother, Mykes. You talk in your sleep, and while Claudia may be able to snooze through anything, some of us aren't quite so lucky."

Pete got another one of his 'thoughtful' looks. "Oh, man - I was gonna say that you probably have about two years' worth of dreams to pick from, but then I realized that means you and HG have racked up two years' worth of unresolved sexual tension. No wonder you're always punching people!"

A door opened somewhere in the B&B just then and Claudia started calling for Pete, who used it as an excuse to get out of Myka's reach before she could start swinging at him, even as she muttered imprecations at him under her breath.

Just to confirm that everything had indeed returned to normal - as much as it could, anyway - Pete paused to poke his head back around the door frame. "I almost forgot - don't worry about the noise when HG gets back. I bought everyone earplugs already!"

Pete didn't stick around after that last salvo, but if he had, he would have seen Myka smile despite herself...


End file.
